Tiger Woods Sent Text in Support of McIlroy After U.S Open Collapse

After Rory McIlroy’s third close major defeat in as many years, several superstars in the sports world reached out to him in the days after last month’s U.S. Open.

Those names include Michael Jordan, Rafael Nadal, and Tiger Woods.

But McIlroy said that never got Woods’ message because he actually changed his phone number after getting so many requests from the media after those two missed short putts cost him his first major title in a decade.

“I blanked Tiger Woods”

Rory McIlroy says he changed numbers so never received Tiger Woods’ text after US Open pic.twitter.com/MEXkV8ad0I

— Golf Monthly (@GolfMonthly) July 16, 2024

Woods ended up catching up with the Northern Irishman during a practice session earlier today at Royal Troon in advance of the Open Championship, which begins Thursday.

Woods said he told him:

“I know this is a difficult moment. We’ve all been there as champions. We all lose. Unfortunately, it just happened, and the raw emotion of it, it’s still there, and it’s going to be there for, I’m sure, some time. The faster he’s able to get back on the horse and get back in contention, like he did last week, the better it is for him.”

Tiger Woods on Rory McIlroy’s US Open loss: pic.twitter.com/ODYN9AopfP

— Golf Monthly (@GolfMonthly) July 16, 2024

Woods said that he still recalls the only time he relinquished a 54-hole lead in a major even though it was 15 years ago. It was the 2009 PGA Championship at Hazeltine, where Y.E. Yang was the beneficiary of Woods’ 75 in that final round.

YE Yang remains the only man to successfully come back and win when Tiger Woods led going into the final round of a major.

The story of the 2009 PGA Championship. pic.twitter.com/jwqAcUqUpe

— GOLFTV (@GOLFTV) August 5, 2020

Woods said:

“You can’t afford to make the mistakes that I made and expect to win tournaments. I know better than that.”

McIlroy returned to action by finishing fourth at the Genesis Scottish Open last week. While he is a four-time major winner, his dry spell is taking on more and more of a life of its own as the years go on.

Despite lots of success – including winning three Tour Championships and a Players Championship – his last major win was at the PGA in 2014. Since that win, he’s had 21 top-10 finishes in majors, including runner-up at the last two U.S. Opens, a third at the 2022 Open, and a runner-up at the 2022 Masters.

Cover Image via Golf Magazine